FACEBOOK'S ENTRY ESCALATES PAYMENTS WAR: Facebook is seeking European regulatory approval to offer PayPal-style electronic money services, according to The Financial Times. The Facebook revelations appear to set the stage for a five-way battle over payments, since all the top tech players have announced major new payment products, or are rumored to have something new in the works, including Amazon, Apple, Google, and eBay's PayPal. What does Facebook bring to the table? "[Facebook is] not new to the scene, having processed in-app transactions on their developer platform for quite some time," Aite Group analyst Nathalie Reinelt tells us. Facebook commands a 30% cut from developers for in-game purchases, and has experimented with a string of unsuccessful e-commerce and deals products. Facebook declined to comment on the Financial Times report, except to call it "rumors and speculation." (Keith Griffith for BI Intelligence)

FACEBOOK CHASING DATA: Facebook might be most interested in payments from a data angle — so that it can better track and understand consumer spending habits. "Payment information is the holy grail for big data collectors like Facebook," Quartz writer Leo Mirani notes. A big move into payments "would cement Facebook's position as a 'must-buy' for advertisers," who currently drive 90% of the company's revenue," he added.

AMAZON ALSO RACING TO MARKET: Amazon payments head Tom Taylor told Re/Code that CEO Jeff Bezos wants to power more transactions outside the site. "The pressure I feel from Jeff is, 'Go faster,'" Taylor said. David Kirkpatrick, founder of media company Techonomy, speculated in an interview on Bloomberg TV that Amazon's forthcoming smartphone would allow the company to get into mobile payments, and make money from fees when consumers use its apps and devices to complete offline retail transactions. "You can start making more money when they go to regular stores and not lose out when that happens," Kirpatrick said in the interview. But he noted that competition would be fierce in the "hugely lucrative" payments space. "There's a small number of companies that are essentially attempting to have a relationship with as close to every American as possible," he said. All these companies "have overlapping ambitions." (Keith Griffith for BI Intelligence)

VERIZON BLOCKS PAYPAL FINGERPRINT SCANNER: BI Intelligence has confirmed that Verizon is blocking access to PayPal's new fingerprint authentication feature, which debuted Friday with the release of Samsung's Galaxy 5S. "Our product team is still evaluating that feature," Verizon spokesman Albert Aydin says. Aydin was unable to immediately confirm whether the blocked access was due to security concerns, or other reasons. Verizon, which along with other U.S. carriers operates the Isis mobile wallet, drew criticism and regulatory scrutiny in late 2011, when it blocked the Google Wallet app from conducting transactions on the Galaxy Nexus smartphone co-developed by Google and Samsung. (Keith Griffith for BI Intelligence)

SQUARE POACHES FROM AMAZON: Square has hired Alyssa Henry to lead engineering for the company. Henry will oversee Square's infrastructure and payments platform. Most recently, Henry was vice president of storage services for Amazon Web Services. (Square)

SWEDISH STARTUP SEES BIG POTENTIAL FOR BIOMETRIC: Quixter, a Sweden-based startup started by a student at Lund University, has convinced a handful of campus shops to install the company's palm-scanning payment devices at checkout. Fredrik Leifland's device, which can be seen in action in this YouTube video, uses infrared imaging similar to the palm scanner from PulseWallet introduced earlier this year. The cost of infrared cameras may limit the spread of such systems for now, but the recent release of international FIDO standards for biometric authentication may help pave the way for widespread acceptance. (Lund University)

THE INSIDE STORY ON CLINKLE: Business Insider's Alyson Shontell has an in-depth look at troubled payments start-up Clinkle. Founded in 2011 Clinkle has received over $30 million in funding — $25 million of which was raised in the largest seed funding round in Silicon Valley history — and has yet to launch its payments app. Though a third of the company's staff has been laid off, 21-year-old CEO Lucas Duplan remains optimistic about the company's future. (Business Insider)